CapsWriter-Offline: A Comprehensive Guide
CapsWriter-Offline is a powerful PC-based tool designed for voice input and subtitle transcription. It offers two main functionalities suited for users who rely heavily on speech recognition and transcription for their work or personal tasks.
Key Features
-
Instant Voice-to-Text Conversion: By pressing the
Caps Lockkey, users can begin recording their voice. Upon releasing theCaps Lock, the tool promptly processes and inputs the recognized text. -
Subtitle Generation from Multimedia: Users can drag and drop audio or video files into the client, which then transcribes the content into .srt subtitle files.
For those interested in a visual tutorial, you can find a video guide here.
Noteworthy Characteristics
- Offline Operation: The tool works entirely offline, ensuring privacy and security.
- High Accuracy and Low Latency: Offers accurate and quick recognition, supporting both English and Chinese inputs and including the automatic formatting of numbers.
- Hot-word Support: Users can customize terminology that the software recognizes instantly by adding to
hot-en.txt,hot-zh.txt, orhot-rule.txt. - Diary and Keyword Feature: Automatically logs recognized texts into a formatted diary system. Specific keywords can direct entries into dedicated files for easy retrieval.
- Server-Client Architecture: This setup allows multiple clients to access services from a single server.
- Configurable Settings: Users can modify settings such as server address, hotkeys, and audio controls via
config.py.
System Requirements and Setup
Windows
- Requires Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable runtime.
- Compatible with Windows 10 and above, utilizing 4GB RAM.
- Separate model files must be placed in the
modelsdirectory after downloading.
Other Systems
- The tool can also be run from Python source code on other operating systems with required downloads and installations.
- Mac systems might face additional challenges due to system restrictions requiring
sudoand a different default hotkey (right shift).
Advanced Features
Hot-word Management
CapsWriter-Offline allows the use of customized vocabulary for enhanced recognition accuracy:
- Chinese Hot-words: Add in
hot-zh.txtbased on pinyin. - English Hot-words: Insert in
hot-en.txtmatched by spelling. - Custom Rules: Define in
hot-rule.txtfor specific replacements.
Diary and Keywords
Recordings and recognized texts are organized by date, while keyword-triggered logs direct entries into specially named files for effortless categorization and retrieval.
Transcription Flexibility
Capable of processing multimedia to generate various caption formats, the software can then utilize the json file to refine and produce accurate subtitles.
Important Considerations
- Audio Storage: Uses
mp3format when FFmpeg is installed; otherwise, defaults towav. - Audio/Video Transcription Needs: The functionality relies on FFmpeg.
- Customizability: Users are free to adjust the default
caps lockkey incore_client.py.
Model Download and Installation
The application leverages models such as sherpa-onnx for voice recognition and a punctuation model by Alibaba. Because of their large size, these models are separately packaged and can be downloaded from specified links.
Miscellaneous Features
- Hidden Startups: Windows users can create scripts to start applications discreetly.
- SysTray GUI Versions: Available to enhance user experience.
- Docker Support: Available for those who prefer containerized environments.
Source Installation and Operation
Instructions are available for installation on Linux, Windows, and Mac, along with detailed steps to run server and client components.
Usage
For quick execution, Linux users can utilize a script to launch the tool with split-screen functionality, while others follow specific OS instructions for operation.
By consolidating state-of-the-art speech recognition with seamless user experience, CapsWriter-Offline promises to serve efficiently wherever oral communication translates to digital records.